{"id":35586,"date":"2025-04-25T22:00:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=35586"},"modified":"2025-04-16T14:03:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T21:03:58","slug":"2-kings-13_14-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-kings-13_14-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith Is Evidenced By Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings 13:14-25 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 13:14-25.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 13:14-25 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The\u00a0LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son succeeded him as king.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a014-19, 22-25:\u00a0 In the final chapter to Elisha’s ministry and life on earth, Elisha meets Jehoash king of Israel, who weeps knowing that Elisha is sick and approaching death.\u00a0 Testifying to Elisha’s greatness, Jehoash calls Elisha “the chariots and horsemen of Israel” (v14), just as Elisha had so called his mentor Elijah (2\u00a0Kings\u00a02:12).\u00a0 Pursuant to Elisha’s instructions, Jehoash grabs a bow, opens the east window, and shoots with Elisha’s hands on Jehoash’s hands.\u00a0 After that Elisha declares that Jehoash will be victorious over the Arameans (v17).\u00a0 Elisha then tells Jehoash to take the arrows in his quiver and strike the ground.\u00a0 So Jehoash takes the arrows and strikes the ground three times.\u00a0 But Elisha becomes angry, saying that Jehoash should have struck the ground fix or six times, because the fact that Jehoash only struck the ground three times meant that he would only defeat Aram three times.<\/p>\n

What is going on here?\u00a0 Elisha is not teaching Jehoash to be superstitious.\u00a0 Rather, at this crucial time when Elisha is nearing death and Israel is under Aramean threat, Elisha is testing Jehoash’s faith in God.\u00a0 In the first exercise, Elisha puts his hands on top of Jehoash’s hands, and together they use a bow to shoot out the east window.\u00a0 It’s not clear if they actually shot an arrow out the window or if Elisha was just getting Jehoash to pretend.\u00a0 In any event, this exercise was relatively easy for Jehoash because Elisha’s hands were guiding and strengthening Jehoash’s hands as he stretched the bow.\u00a0 By declaring after shooting with the bow that Jehoash will be victorious over Aram, Elisha was teaching Jehoash that victory would depend on Jehoash’s faith in God’s Word.<\/p>\n

So in the second exercise, Elisha is watching to see what kind of faith Jehoash would place in God’s Word when Jehoash does not have Elisha’s hands to guide him (symbolic of the time upcoming when Jehoash would need to lead Israel without Elisha’s guidance).\u00a0 Elisha tells Jehoash to take the arrows into his hands and without Elisha’s help strike the ground with those arrows.\u00a0 The fact that Jehoash only struck the ground three times suggests that Jehoash was passive, lazy and doubtful.\u00a0 Had Jehoash struck the ground five or six times, Jehoash would have had complete victory instead of partial victory over Aram.\u00a0 For the number of times Jehoash struck the ground reflected how much faith Jehoash had in God’s Word and God’s faithfulness.\u00a0 Indeed, despite Aram overpowering Israel while his father ruled Israel, Jehoash would go on to defeat Aram three times just as Elisha had predicted (v22-25).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0How much faith you have in God hugely affects how much victory you will experience with God<\/strong>. \u00a0As 1 John 5:4 says, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith” (1 John 5:4, NKJV).\u00a0 \u00a0Choose to trust in God and His promises today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0Faith is evidenced by action.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s easy for anyone to say “I believe in God” or “I trust in God”, but it is what they do and how they live that really shows what they believe.\u00a0\u00a0It’s easy for anyone to say “I love God”, but how much a person loves God is shown through their actions: the way they worship, the way they serve, the way they pray, the way they use their time and money,\u00a0the way they take risks for Him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A classic example is baptism.\u00a0 It’s easy for someone to say, “I believe in Jesus and want to follow him”, but if that person refuses to obey a basic command from Jesus like getting baptized to evidence their faith, then that person must ask themselves, “Do I really believe in Jesus?”<\/p>\n

As James\u00a02:18, 26 says, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’\u00a0Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do…As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”\u00a0\u00a0Faith is evidenced by action.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Kings<\/em><\/strong>\u00a013<\/em><\/strong>:20-21 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n20\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0Elisha died and was buried.\u00a0Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring.\u00a0<\/em>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 20-21:\u00a0 Elisha dies from his sickness and is buried.\u00a0 Evidently Elisha didn’t leave the earth as gloriously as his mentor Elijah did.\u00a0 Elisha died from an illness whereas Elijah never died but was taken up to heaven alive.\u00a0 But one thing Elijah never did which Elisha did do was bring someone back to life even after their own departure from the earth.\u00a0 Elisha’s legacy was such that even after he died, other dead people were coming back to life and finding hope just by getting close to his bones.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Leave a life-giving legacy.\u00a0 When you die, may the legacy you leave — the memory of your character, your faith, the way you loved God and loved others — be an inspiration that brings life and hope to those who come after you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, since how much faith I have will affect how much victory I experience in life, may I live each day with victory-inducing faith and may my actions show it.\u00a0 In the end may I leave a legacy that brings life and hope to others and leads them to Jesus.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 13:14-25.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

2 Kings 13:14-25 (NIV)
\n14\u00a0\u00a0Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
\n15\u00a0\u00a0Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a014-19, 22-25:\u00a0 In the final chapter to Elisha’s ministry and life on earth, Elisha meets Jehoash king of Israel, who weeps knowing that Elisha is sick and approaching death.\u00a0 Testifying to Elisha’s greatness, Jehoash calls Elisha “the chariots and horsemen of Israel” (v14), just as Elisha had so called his mentor Elijah (2\u00a0Kings\u00a02:12).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35586"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35589,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35586\/revisions\/35589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}